In Want of a Wife Page 6

  Just more proof that Liz should put him out of her mind for good.

  If he’d had any interest in getting to know them (her), he would have made more of an effort.

  Her mind wouldn’t cooperate. When she was lying in bed at night, she’d be hit with visions of his sober gaze, his fine shoulders, the fire that had smoldered in his eyes as he’d leaned closer to her on Saturday at the party, as if he was about to kiss her hard.

  She’d play movies in her imagination of how things might have gone had Riot not called out for her just then. Then she’d make up stories about how they might run into each other again. What he would say. What she would say.

  How he would kiss her for real.

  It was all highly disturbing, and Liz wished she was more in control of herself. She wasn’t usually like this, and she didn’t like it.

  So at eight thirty on Saturday morning, a week after the party, she was sitting on her terrace, drinking coffee and playing on her phone and trying not to wonder how late Vince slept in on Saturdays.

  She was almost relieved when the doors opened behind her and Riot came out to flop down in the chair beside her, wearing her purple fleece pajamas and a grumpy expression. She’d spent the night with Liz and Jane last night, as she occasionally did when she wanted to get away from their parents.

  Riot’s real name was Harriet, but she’d always hated it, so she’d renamed herself Riot in middle school and the name had stuck.

  “It’s kind of early for you to be up, isn’t it?” Liz asked.

  “Jane woke me up banging around in her room.”

  This was obviously the source of the bad mood. Liz shook her head. “She’s moving the furniture around in her room.”

  “By herself?”

  “I helped her with the bed and dresser.”

  “And y’all couldn’t wait until noon or some other reasonable time of the day?”

  “Jane has to cover the shop today starting at ten. And, if I recall, you have to go into Darcy’s by ten today too.”

  “I know. I hate working Saturdays. I hate sitting around watching stupid people eyeball every item in the store and then finally decide to buy nothing but a fifty-cent spoon.”

  Liz gave a huff of amusement since she’d felt the same impatience herself many times. “I know. But you can quit any time you want and find a different sort of job. You just took the job at Darcy’s to spite Mom and Dad anyway.”

  “They told me I had to get a job if I wanted to keep living with them, so I got one.”

  Riot was still in college and still living with their parents. She’d failed out of UVA her sophomore year, so her parents had brought her back home, insisting that if she was going to live off them, she had to take classes toward a degree at a local college and get some sort of job.

  So Riot had taken the job at Darcy’s just to piss everyone off. She was twenty-two now and still doing it.

  “You could always work for Mom and Dad like me and Jane,” Liz added.

  “I would, but you get all the good stuff to do. Why can’t I help with the buying?”

  “If you’d taken the time to get educated on art and antiques like I have so you could recognize what’s valuable and what’s not, then you could have helped with the buying. But you never learned, so you’d come back with a bunch of worthless junk.”

  “I would not.”

  “You would too.” Liz never coddled her younger sister the way the rest of her family did. Doing so just made Riot act more like a baby, and she already acted more like a fourteen-year-old than a twenty-two-year-old. “You don’t know anything about antiques. You could never acquire good inventory, and you can’t do the accounting or administration like Jane. So if you want to help with the store, you’ll have to work the shop. Your other choice is to find a different job doing anything you like and support yourself.”

  Riot grumbled under her breath, an obvious sign of exactly what she thought of that idea.

  She wasn’t actually much of an arguer, and long experience had taught them both that Liz would win any argument between them based on reason and evidence. Riot’s strategy was to whine ceaselessly until people gave up and gave her what she wanted.

  Liz hated that her sister was so immature, and part of her wished her parents would finally put their foot down with her and kick her out of the house so she would have no choice but to grow up. But they hadn’t yet, and Riot showed no signs of maturing anytime soon.

  “Maybe you can take me with you sometime when you’re buying,” Riot said after a minute. “You could teach me.”

  Liz’s first instinct was to give that suggestion a decided no, but she bit back the word. Riot had been spoiled, and she would never learn to be a functioning part of the family business until they gave her the opportunity. “I can take you sometime, but we’d have to start with the flea markets and estate sales.”

  “But I wanted to—”

  “I can’t take you with me to an auction because the pace is too fast. You’d distract me and slow me down, and then we’d miss out on the best pieces. I’m hitting a couple of flea markets first thing tomorrow morning. You can come with me if you want.”

  “Okay.” Riot looked almost excited.

  “We have to get there early to get the good stuff. I’ll be leaving at six thirty tomorrow morning.”

  “Six thirty!”

  “You said you wanted to learn buying.”

  Riot mumbled something. Liz figured there was no more than a fifty percent chance of Riot actually waking up in time to go with her tomorrow.

  Before either of them could say anything else, Jane came out onto the terrace with a bottle of water. She wore skinny jeans and a tank top that made her look as slim and graceful as a model. Her face was flushed, and her hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail.

  “Did you get it done?”

  “Yes. I think so. I like it better this way. I can see the view outside from the bed.”

  “Are you thinking someone else is going to be seeing the view from your bed soon?” Riot asked.

  Liz rolled her eyes, and Jane shook her head.

  “Well? You like him, don’t you?”

  “Hush,” Jane whispered, looking back at the terrace for Vince and Charlie’s unit. The french doors were closed, but still.

  Liz had good reason to know that voices carried.

  Jane met her eyes. “I’m going to get that floor lamp out of storage. You know that one with the stained-glass globe?”

  “Oh yeah. That would look great in your room.”

  “Do you know where it is in the storeroom? That place is chaos.”

  “Yeah. It’s kind of in the middle. It’s got a bunch of boxes around it, so you’ll need to—” Liz stood up. “You know what? I better come with you. Let me throw on some clothes.”

  “You don’t have to—”

  “It’s going to be hard for you to move all the stuff out of the way on your own. I don’t mind. I’m just sitting here doing nothing anyway. Just give me a minute to put something on, and I’ll be ready.”

  Four

  VINCE DUMPED HIS REMAINING coffee in the sink and put his mug into the dishwasher before turning back to face Charlie, who was wrapping thick brown paper around the large terrarium he’d spent the past week making.

  “Why did you have to make it so big?” Vince asked, taking in the large form and trying to imagine the pain it was going to be to carry it down to the car, drive it over to the school, and install it into Charlie’s third-grade classroom.

  The collection of plants in Charlie’s class was getting a very fancy new home.

  “Well, I didn’t mean to, but I kept thinking of new plants to add, so it got bigger and bigger.” Charlie’s face was rueful but also pleased. He looked like a kid with a new toy. “The kids are going to love it.”

  “Not just the kids,” Vince said dryly. “The only ones who are going to remain unimpressed are the plants themselves.”

  Charlie laughed as he tape
d up the protective paper with an abundance that wasn’t entirely necessary. “The plants will love it too.”

  “Well, hurry up and finish with the tape so we can haul the thing to the school.”

  “I’m all done.”

  The two men stared at the covered terrarium for a few seconds, and Vince silently prayed that they’d be able to get the monstrosity across town and into place without a calamity.

  Charlie and his students would be very upset if it were to fall and bust apart.

  After plotting out a course of action, the two of them carried the terrarium to the elevator and then out of the building without incident. It was heavy, but the main obstacle was its awkward bulk. They were maneuvering it into the back of Vince’s SUV, since it wouldn’t fit into Charlie’s ancient Mustang, when another car pulled into the lot not far from them.

  Vince recognized it immediately, and his senses went into high alert.

  He’d spent the entire past week—ever since the party—trying to feel normal again, like his regular self.

  He was settling in at his mother’s store and finding the work interesting and surprisingly satisfying. He was getting along well with Charlie, despite their close quarters and the fact that Vince wasn’t really a roommate kind of person. He was enjoying the time with his mother and convinced his presence was helping her through her grief.

  Overall, things in his life were evening out, and he should start to feel like himself again.

  But he didn’t.

  And something about Liz was responsible.

  He didn’t understand it, and he didn’t like it, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He’d on purpose tried to avoid her all week, but he saw her in passing fairly often and every time was like a blast of cold air, waking him up when he hadn’t even known he’d been sleepwalking.

  It happened again now as he saw her car pulling into one of her unit’s assigned parking places.

  He was bent over, reaching in to fit the damned terrarium into the back seat, and he wished his position wasn’t quite so undignified.

  “What is that thing?” Liz called out. She must have gotten out of her car based on the location and clarity of her voice, but Vince’s head was still trapped in the back of the car, trying to move the monstrosity into position without ripping his leather upholstery.

  “It’s a terrarium,” Charlie explained, straightening up. It sounded like he was grinning, while Vince was still straining to get the thing to move into place. “For my classroom.”

  “Oh fun!” That was Liz.

  “Nice.” Jane had evidently gotten out of the car too since Vince recognized her voice.

  “We all must have been hit with the moving bug this morning since Jane and I are doing the same thing. We just got a lamp and an end table out of our storage unit.” Liz sounded bright and pleasant, and Vince really wanted to see her face, her expression.

  He wanted it so much he didn’t let himself straighten up. He hadn’t gotten the terrarium secure on the seat yet anyway.

  “Oh, if you’re moving furniture, hold on a minute, and Vince and I will help,” Charlie volunteered.

  “Thank you, but we’re fine,” Jane said in her low, slightly detached voice. “They’re not very heavy, and you look busy.”

  Her response gave Vince a different kind of prickle in his mind. This one worry. Charlie was already totally gone on Jane, and he was afraid Jane didn’t feel the same way. She was always very nice, but also distanced, as if she wasn’t taking her interaction with Charlie nearly as seriously as he was.

  Vince didn’t want to see his friend get hurt, and he was increasingly afraid it was going to happen.

  “Charlie,” he said, his voice more abrupt than he’d intended. “I need some help here, and if my leather gets damaged, you’re going to pay for it.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” Charlie turned toward his side of the back seat. “Hold on a minute, and we’ll help y’all with your stuff.”

  Vince was pretty sure Liz wasn’t going to want to feel like a helpless weakling, so he didn’t think she’d be waiting for the men’s help.

  He was right.

  By the time Vince and Charlie had gotten the terrarium in place and closed the doors, Liz was carrying a tall floor lamp with a stained-glass globe, and Jane was carrying a small end table.

  Neither piece could be very heavy. Surely they’d be fine getting the furniture into their place on their own.

  Vince was flushed and hot and sweating and irritable and worried about Charlie and infuriatingly drawn to Liz’s lovely face, her expression reflecting a wry amusement as if she understood exactly how Vince was feeling.

  He wasn’t used to people reading him so easily.

  It rankled at him.

  He was about to tell Charlie to get into the car so they could get going when Jane suddenly went down. Since Vince was looking in her direction, he saw it happen.

  The sidewalks on the estate were all done with historic pavers, many of them original. They were beautiful but also uneven in places, and Jane’s foot landed on a particularly uneven spot.

  Her ankle turned, and she fell, the end table landing on top of her already twisted foot.

  Jane cried out in obvious pain, and Liz made a startled sound and ran over, putting down the lamp so she could crouch beside her sister. Charlie ran over too, his face distraught with worry.

  “Are you all right?” Vince asked, genuinely concerned. The fall had looked painful. That ankle wasn’t going to be good.

  Jane’s face was white, and her skin was wet with perspiration. She tried to speak, but only a whimper came out.

  Charlie had taken charge of the end table, and Liz was inspecting her sister’s ankle. She moved it gently, and Jane cried out sharply in response.

  “It’s more than just a twisted ankle,” Liz said, sounding as serious as Vince had ever heard her. “I think I better take her to the emergency room to get it x-rayed.”

  Jane nodded, biting down on her lower lip.

  “Vince and I will take you,” Charlie said, already starting to help get Jane to her feet.

  She couldn’t put any weight on the ankle, so Liz and Charlie propped her up between them as they made their way to Liz’s small, inexpensive sedan. Vince would have volunteered his vehicle, but there was a gargantuan terrarium in his back seat.

  He could see how determined Charlie was to help out Jane, but Vince was worried that they would be more hassle than help.

  Liz confirmed this worry because, as soon as they got Jane into the front seat of the car, she turned toward Vince and Charlie. “Y’all really don’t have to go with us.”

  “Of course we do,” Charlie insisted. “You’ll need help with Jane, and we can keep you company while you wait. It always takes hours in the emergency room.”

  Vince knew that to be true, but he met Liz’s eyes and said softly, “Tell us if you don’t want us to tag along.”

  Liz seemed to understand. Her face relaxed slightly. “I don’t mind. Really. I just don’t want you to feel obliged. I’m sure it’s the last thing you want to do on a Saturday.”

  “My other choice was hauling that terrarium, so honestly this is better.”

  Liz’s lips turned up slightly in a smile that wasn’t bright but still looked sincere.

  He couldn’t help but respond to it. “We’re happy to help with your sister.”

  His conclusion was obviously irrelevant to Charlie, who was already climbing into the back seat of Liz’s car and talking the whole time to Jane.

  Liz and Vince walked around to the other side and got in.

  Vince wasn’t feeling at all like himself. Something was moving inside his chest, his belly. Flapping. Flying.

  Fluttering.

  He hoped it would go away soon.

  AN HOUR LATER, LIZ walked out into the waiting room to find that Charlie and Vince were sitting in a far corner, away from everyone else.

  The emergency room hadn’t been very crowded, but every
thing at a hospital seemed to take forever. Liz had held Jane’s hand as they waited to be called for, and then she’d gone back with her sister as they waited a long time for a doctor to make an appearance.

  “How is she?” Charlie asked, jumping out of his seat as she approached.

  “She’s fine. They gave her something for the pain. The doctor thinks it’s just a sprain, but they’re taking her to get an X-ray to make sure nothing is broken. Then they’ll know if she needs a cast or anything. They kicked me out. They said it might be a couple of hours, so you guys can leave if you want to.”

  She knew immediately that Charlie wouldn’t want to leave, but she was worried about Vince resenting having his whole day wasted like this. She didn’t want him to stay if he’d rather be somewhere else.

  “Of course we’re not going to leave,” Charlie said. “We can keep you company.”

  Liz met Vince’s eyes. He’d stood up too at her approach, and his face was sober but not as aloof as she’d seen it before. “It’s no problem at all,” he said softly.

  “Okay. Thanks. Hopefully it won’t take forever.” She sat down in an empty seat and then realized it was the one right beside Vince.

  He sat down too.

  He smelled good. Clean and faintly expensive but still natural. Like a real person. She breathed him in without conscious volition.

  “Do you need something to drink?” Charlie asked. “Or eat? Maybe Jane will be hungry when she comes out. Do you think I should get something for her?”

  He was so obviously worried that Liz’s heart went out to him, but she also knew the man was going to drive her crazy if he acted like this for an hour or two as they waited. So she thought for a minute and then said, “You know, that’s not a bad idea. She loves the chicken salad sandwiches from Stella’s. Since we have plenty of time, if you don’t mind, maybe you could run out and get some. You could take my car.”

  “That’s a great idea. I’ll do that. Do you want one too?”

  “That would be great. And here, let me give you some money. You can get something for you and Vince too.”